1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to graphic user interfaces (GUIs) and more particularly to a GUI that presents a computer user with an alternative organization that dynamically structures their use of the computer, based upon the user's scheduled activities, their pending work and the current time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional systems utilize a program driven GUI that includes icons that are selected to begin various programs, such as word processing programs and presentation programs. The problem of presenting the resources of a computer in an easy to access format has been previously solved by graphical user interfaces (GUI's) that present a “desktop” metaphor to a user (e.g., Windows 95/98, Windows NT, Windows CE, OS/2, X-Windows). In this solution/metaphor, the computer screen represents the top of a desk and the rectangular figures on the screen (icons/application windows) represent pieces of “paper”. The collection and arrangement of icons and windows on the screen is usually arbitrary. For the case of icons, their physical placement on the screen/desktop is relatively static and usually only changed by direct manual manipulation by the user. Further, the set of icons on the screen is also usually only changed by direct manual user intervention. The creation of application “windows” is somewhat more dynamic in previous solutions, but usually occurs only due to direct manual invocation of an application by a user.
However, such systems are somewhat cumbersome as there is no means to have the desktop automatically select appropriate icons to match a user's scheduled task(s). A better solution (the inventive solution) is to have the interface adapt to the user such that all of the resources needed to complete the task at hand are prominently displayed and easily accessible. As discussed in greater detail below, the invention overcomes these problems by changing the model used by the desktop metaphor from a static collection of manually placed icons, to one that dynamically changes the collection of icons and other resources to match the schedule of the user.